1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the cutting or slicing of food products, and more particularly to the reduction of selected food products to particles or fragments having predetermined dimensional and shape characteristics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years it has become increasingly popular to incorporate food products such as seeds. nuts and raisins in breakfast cereals. With the trend toward greater awareness of the effect of diet upon a healthy life-style, and the perceived beneficial effect that natural foods can have upon the state of one's health, it has become desirable to incorporate a number of food products not heretofore generally employed for that purpose into dry cereals. Thus, it has been found that various types of dried berries and other small food products may advantageously be added to dry cereals to enhance their flavor and appeal Among the dried products, by way of example, are cherries and cranberries. Such products in their dried state are larger than desirable for incorporation into the cereal, and the individual fruits or berries are preferably reduced to fragments or particles of relatively small size which can be mixed with the dry cereal. To that end, it has been found that thin, elongated strips or slivers of the dried fruits or berries are particularly well suited for this purpose.
In preparatiou for addition to cereal, the raw fruit products are subjected to a sugar-infusion process and then dried to a moisture content on the order of 7 to 13 percent by weight. Numerous machines have been proposed and are commercially available for slicing or dicing fruits and vegetables. Some of these machines employ spaced, rotating circular blades for cutting the products into strips. However none has proven entirely satisfactory for cutting dried, sugar infused fruit and berry products into thin strips as desired for addition to breakfast cereals and other food products.